


As Good A Place To Fall As Any

by stpitbull



Category: Fallout: New Vegas
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2012-03-29
Updated: 2012-03-29
Packaged: 2017-11-02 17:08:12
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 4
Words: 4,349
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/371369
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/stpitbull/pseuds/stpitbull





	1. Chapter 1

This was just too fucking much.   
  
The searing ache of realizing that Boone and that Jasper kid were together had finally started to dull, the sick feeling in his gut when he saw the way Boone looked at the courier finally easing up. Sure, both were still eating away at his ability to sleep easily, but that was to be expected. This was years of unrequited love he was dealing with, and until now it had been tempered by the fact that Boone  _couldn't_  reciprocate. It was so much worse knowing that it was never just that he wasn't into men.   
  
But he was willing to deal with that. Boone, goddamn him, seemed healthier than he had in ages. Manny actually saw him smile earlier, a little half-crooked thing like his face was fighting it but still. If Boone was out of the darkness enough to smile, then as far as Manny was concerned it didn't matter who was making it happen. Hell, he could have kissed Jasper for that. Well, maybe not that far. He could have shaken the kid's hand for that. Congratulated the happy couple and wished them well for that.   
  
But listening to them make love upstairs was too much.   
  
He had dragged a pillow over his head but it wasn't enough to muffle Jasper's moans penetrating the ancient walls of the motel, the occasional  _thunk_  of whatever, Manny didn't even want to parse it, didn't want to imagine what Boone was doing to the kid to make him gasp and beg like that.   
  
Hearing Boone raggedly call out the kid's name and Manny shot out of bed, dragging on his trousers in jerky movements and slipping into his boots. Air, he needed air.    
  
He shivered against the cold of the desert night but stepped out, closing the door behind him and rubbing at his arms to bolster some heat into his limbs. He could see his breath cloud in twin bursts from his nostrils, felt a sharp cold sting around the rims of his eyes that made him uncomfortably aware of something he'd been persistently denying.   
  
He pawed at his trouser pockets, pulling out a pack of cigarettes and popping one between his lips.   
  
"As a doctor, I feel obligated to warn you that those things are terrible for you."

He looked up from under his eyebrows at a shock of white-blonde hair. The Follower who'd come in with Boone and the courier. He looked different out of the labcoat, not to mention with his wavy hair rumpled and his glasses folded and hanging from his collar. "Arcade, right?" he asked. The doc nodded, looking exhausted but giving him a small, weary smile. He extended the pack in his hand and said, "Want one anyway?"   
  
Arcade chuckled and shook his head. "No thanks," he said, holding up a bottle of whiskey. "I'm a different breed of hypocrite."   
  
"Aw, come on, whiskey's not bad for you," Manny said around lighting his cigarette. "It's the drinking that is."   
  
It wasn't even halfway to funny, but Arcade chuckled again. "Man," he said, leaning against the one of the ground floor partitions, "seems like no one sleeps in Novac. Wouldn't have pegged it for having such a hopping nightlife, let me tell you."   
  
Manny snorted. "The lovebirds keeping you up too?" he ventured.   
  
Arcade nodded, and with his eyes properly adjusted to the darkness Manny could see the weary weight to his shoulders, the rings under his eyes. He accepted the bottle when Arcade offered it to him, taking a quick swig that burned nicely going down. "And Jasper always struck me as the innocent type," the doctor said. "But those two find a way to fuck anywhere. At least they're in a bed this time."   
  
Manny laughed to cover up the fresh twist in his gut. "And here I was all ready to bitch about one night of having to listen to them," he said, handing the bottle back to Arcade, warm fingertips brushing against his own.   
  
"I do my level best to avoid having to hear them," the doc said, and he took a drink. "Even if it means renting a room at the Wrangler when we're at the home base. Still, seems like nothing can protect me from a sneak attack of them making brahmin eyes at each other."   
  
There was a familiar bitterness beneath the doctor's tone that softened something inside of Manny. Maybe it was the fact that he was drained from hurting all goddamn day but at the moment he didn't even care who Arcade was jealous of. For now it just made him feel less alone.   
  
"Yeah, I've been down this road before," he said, feeling bold. "When Boone got married? Yeah, their room was  _next_  to mine. Sound travels weird in these old buildings but that was a  _lot_  more direct."   
  
Arcade winced sympathetically. "Sounds  _delightful_ ," he said dryly, drawing a laugh out of Manny and handing him the bottle.   
  
"Oh, man, it was a rollercoaster of fun," Manny said, taking one more drink for bravery and jumping in. "I was already pissed at the blushing bride for snatching him up so it was just adding insult to injury. Sometimes I honestly thought she knew and was just rubbing my face in it, the fact that she had won."   
  
He forced himself to look casual, but despite the reserved way Arcade held himself, he could see the doc was looking at him with new eyes. He accepted the bottle as Manny offered it back and said with meaning, "I feel you on that one."


	2. Chapter 2

The door had barely closed and Arcade was pressing him against it, body flush with his own and hands in his hair and tongue in his mouth. Manny's startled hands roamed the doctor's broad back, settling on the curve of his ass as Arcade pressed harder against him, nipping at his lower lip and gusting hot breath on his face. He smelled like whiskey and something clean and foreign. Those hands that gracelessly wandered Manny's hair, his neck, his face were softskinned but strong, firm.    
  
"Damn, doc," Manny breathed as Arcade nosed at his jaw and moved to mouth at his neck. He tilted his head back to  _thunk_  against the door and closing his eyes to savor the feeling of lips and tongue and the scrape of stubble on his throat, "you weren't kidding about it being a while, huh?"   
  
"That, and the fact that you're actually attractive as hell," Arcade said against his throat before nipping at the shell of his ear. Manny hissed and arched forward, pressing into him.   
  
Manny's hands planted themselves on the doctor's broad shoulders. He hadn't realized just how  _big_  Arcade actually was until... well, now, being fantastically overpowered by him. Hadn't realized just how tall he was, how big his elegant hands were. "We should probably move this to the bed," he panted as Arcade kept doing wonderful things to his ear.   
  
"Yeah, we probably should." Those big hands cupped him under his ass and he was being bodily  _lifted_ , Arcade's own weight supporting him against the door. Some lost instinct kicked in, wrapping his legs around the doctor's waist. Manny was not exactly a small guy, himself, and this was definitely new territory. And no way in hell was he complaining, not while Arcade was grinding against him, hard bulge pushing rough against his own and sending shocks of pleasure through his gut.   
  
"Or this, this works," Manny said before Arcade's mouth claimed his again in a searing kiss. He parted his lips at the first brush of tongue, moaning into Arcade's mouth and trying to match every expert stroke of his tongue before just surrendering, wrapping his arms around Arcade's neck and letting his mouth be plundered, groaning as the doctor rhythmically rocked up against him.   
  
"Took you long enough," Arcade murmured against his lips, hips holding him up as one hand left Manny's ass to thread through his hair. "Was wondering when you'd stop the whole 'fight for dominance' thing and just accept that you had already lost."   
  
Manny chuckled breathlessly. "Man, there are  _way_  better things your mouth could be doing instead of chiding me for being enthusiastic."   
  
He reached for the hem of the doctor's white t-shirt, tugging it up and making an impatient noise when Arcade didn't move his arms. It was an awkward dance of limbs getting the shirt off, but Arcade's white-blonde hair was tousled in the most fantastic way when Manny reached his goal. " _Fuck_ ," Manny said, letting his body go slack against the door as he admired the sight before him. Whiskey always made him feel warm and loose, but some part of him got that this was too much from just a few swigs. Still, he didn't try to stop himself from saying, "Anyone ever told you that you are  _seriously_  fucking beautiful?"   
  
Something strange flashed in Arcade's eyes and he was back to mouthing at Manny's throat before the sniper could make a real try at parsing it. "That's the whiskey talking."   
  
"Sure," Manny chuckled, baring his throat again, "that's why I was thinkin' it before I'd even had a drink."   
  
"You know, you don't have to flatter me," Arcade said, "I'm already going to do horrible things to you."   
  
"Exactly, I'm being ravished to death by a handsome doctor, I can't be held responsible for anything I say." He moaned as Arcade laved the spot just below his earlobe. "That would be the  _best_  defense for anything. 'I know I stole all'a those steaks, but mere moments before I was fucked stupid by  _that_  sexy bastard. Seriously, look at those eyes and tell me you'd act rationally.'"   
  
"Oh my god,  _stop talking_ ," and he laughed, Arcade grabbing under his thighs again and lifting him, turning and dropping him onto the bed before descending upon him.


	3. Chapter 3

Arcade's grip on Manny's hips tightened as he pulled them back onto his cock rhythmically with every thrust. Manny was starting to feel that post-climax oversensitivity kick in, so he clenched around Arcade, coaxing him closer to the edge. he doctor pumped into him faster and Manny felt him come, groaned with him. Arcade slumped over, panting, forehead resting on Manny's back, gusting air over his sweatsoaked skin. He pressed a swollen-lipped kiss between Manny's shoulder blades before rising and carefully pulling out. Manny rolled over to settle on his back, Arcade landing on top of him and sprawling in a mess of limbs on the too-small bed. "You," Arcade said between pants, "are one  _noisy_  bastard."   
  
Manny laughed, threading a hand through Arcade's mess of blonde hair. "Complainin'?"   
  
"God, no," Arcade answered. "Nice to know when I'm doing something right." He paused uncomfortably, then said, "You weren't just doing that because of...?"   
  
He trailed off and it took Manny a while to figure out what he was getting at. "Oh, the lovebirds? No! God, no, I'm just loud." Weirdly enough, Manny was realizing now, he had actually forgotten all about them, somewhere around the time he had tasted Arcade's tongue in his mouth. And now he was pleasantly spent. Warm. Felt like he could sleep. Arcade knew how to provide one hell of a distraction.   
  
He felt the last bit of tension leave Arcade's body as it relaxed on top of his own. "Okay. Good. I mean, good to know. Either way," he lifted his head slightly, eyes on the ceiling, "listen. You hear that? Silence. Sweet, blessed silence, how fantastic is that?"   
  
Manny chuckled. "Right? I may actually be able to get some sleep before my shift. No falling asleep up in the dino."   
  
"Seems like you could take naps up there and no one would be the wiser," Arcade observed. "I mean, there'd be  _me_ , but I'd do nothing worse than maybe sneak up there and draw embarrassing things on your face."   
  
Manny snorted. "Are you  _twelve_ ?"   
  
"Only when I'm sleep-deprived and tired of resorting to snippiness. Which I am a lot these days."   
  
Manny grinned, imagining Arcade engaging Boone in a rousing round of Why Are You Hitting Yourself. "Yeah, well, naps aren't much of an option. Gotta keep an eye out. So if I am that tired I just pound coffee and ruin my aim."   
  
"I don't even want to consider the bathroom situation."   
  
"Please don't. But yeah, no naps. Don't want to miss a rogue tumbleweed rolling by in the distance."   
  
"True. I hear they can smell fear." Arcade looked up, resting his chin on Manny's chest and looking at him. "Sounds like you just  _love_  your job."   
  
Manny grinned, ignoring the odd little catch in his chest at the sight of Arcade like this, and still running his fingers through that hair. "Oh, it's a thrill a minute. Naw, don't get me wrong or anything, I love protecting Novac. In theory. It's just that the actuality of it is..."   
  
"Soul-crushingly boring?" Arcade ventured.   
  
"Yeah," Manny said. "And lonely."   
  
"Mm." Arcade lay his head down again. "I can relate to that."   
  
"Yeah." Manny let his eyelids slide closed. Arcade was a pleasantly solid weight on top of him, and they just lay there for a moment in companionable silence. Heartrates returned to a proper momentum. Manny's fingertips tracing small circles at the base of Arcade's neck.   
  
Arcade slowly ran his hands down Manny's sides, breathing in. "Okay, you have got to stop smelling so good," he murmured, his low voice making Manny's stomach flip. "It's doing things to me. Ungentlemanly things."   
  
Manny chuckled, pace picking up as Arcade shifted on him. "Ungentlemanly?"   
  
"Mm. I've already had my way with you once, the gentlemanly thing to do would be to let you get some sleep."   
  
"Ah." Arcade's words were catching on his damp skin in a way that sent fresh heat coiling in his gut. "And you're a gentleman, are you?"   
  
"That's the phrase, isn't it?" Arcade nuzzled at his chest. "A gentleman and a scholar?"   
  
Arcade's hands had moved up to his chest, catching a thumb on his nipple and making him writhe in response. "Y'know," he said, running his hands down Arcade's back and lightly raking his fingernails back up, "I think making it halfway is enough, tonight."   
  
"Mm, admirable, even."


	4. Chapter 4

The trio left in the morning, Manny watching out for them from the dino head as they made their way down the road. Their travel pattern hadn't changed from the weeks he'd watched them before -- Jasper led with Boone just a few steps behind him, and Arcade in the back. Of course, now, knowing what he knew, seeing Boone so close to the courier did something unpleasant to his general chest cavity area.   
  
They had reached the middle of the bridge when Arcade turned back, looked up at the dino head and tossed a funny little salute Manny's way. Manny had to grin, even with the curious little flip his stomach gave.   
  
And then it was back to all quiet in Novac. Back to the boring day to day, although now Manny got to have a private little fond smile every time he saw a tumbleweed roll by, remembering Arcade's warning.   
  
About a week had passed when Manny was ending his shift and saw one of the small-time merchant caravans rolling into town, the one Sully played guard for. Sully was usually good for a pick-me-up once Manny had bought him a beer. So he did, and Sully followed him to his room and it was... unsatisfying. Manny found himself wishing he'd be slammed up against the door or thrown around a little more. Maybe bent over the table. Sex was sex and that was all well and good -- it wasn't like he had guys lining up outside his door, so he'd take what he could get. But taking what he could get was usually more fun than this.   
  
"Man," he said, forcing a companionable chuckle, "you keep me up all night and I'll have trouble staying awake for my shift tomorrow."   
  
Sully grunted. "Fine. I can leave. Don't do me no favors."   
  
Manny bit back a disappointed sigh. "Right. Well."   
  
  
  
Jasper had a habit of visiting Novac maybe once a week or so, one of Old Lady Gibson's most loyal customers for duct tape and scrap metal and playing cards. Manny had asked him about it once, back before he had been blacklisted in the most petty parts of Manny's mind, why he was always in little old Novac instead of that big suite he had on the Strip. Jasper had just shrugged. Said he felt more at home in Novac, that it wasn't full of the excess and vice he found disquieting in the Strip. "Plus, this is where I met Boone," he had said with that quiet smile of his. "That was kind of a big day for me." At the time Manny had just dismissed his meaning as the day he'd gotten an unstoppable bodyguard with the best military training the NCR had to offer. Thinking of it now made his gut twist.   
  
But that sick little twist that flared up when he saw the two of them approaching Novac was eased considerably when he saw the tall shock of white-blonde hair that was following them.   
  
He found Arcade after his shift, nursing a beer alone in the little makeshift tent bar. Manny ordered one of his own and sat next to the doctor. "Hey," he greeted.   
  
"Hey, yourself," Arcade smiled at him. "Good to see you again."   
  
"The lovebirds already retired for the night?" Manny asked, cracking open his beer and taking a drink.   
  
"Mm. Gibson had  _two_  king cards to sell so I'm pretty sure Jasper just couldn't wait for the victory sex. And good for them, y'know, having all that energy after they dragged me across the Mojave so I could sit alone in a bar with aching feet."   
  
Manny shrugged, fiddling with the cap of his beer. "You're not alone now," he offered casually.   
  
"True," Arcade said. "But my feet are still killing me. I'm not built for the kinds of excursions Jasper insists on."   
  
"Wuss," Manny grinned. "You're totally playing this up for sympathy with him, aren't you?"   
  
"Hey!" Arcade approximated an offended look, but the gleam in his eyes gave him away. "I left the glamorous life of a Follower, sitting on my ass all day, to travel with a former  _courier_ . It takes some getting used to."   
  
"Riiiight," Manny grinned at him knowingly. "You're forgetting that I know how athletic you are."   
  
The offended guise fell away and Arcade met his private smile. "Yeah, well. Don't tell anyone, you'll blow my cover."

Manny laughed, and they fell into a comfortable silence. "So," Manny said after another swig. "Wanna spend the night in my room?"   
  
"God, yes. I mean. Oh, screw it, let's go with 'god, yes'."   
  
Manny grinned. "Yeah, 'god yes' works for me."   
  
  
  
" _God, yes_ ," Manny was groaning out, his entire body on fire as Arcade turned him around and bent him over the table, reaching one long arm out to sweep everything off it first. It all fell to the floor in a clatter, Manny melting into the table's surface as Arcade dragged a hand possessively down his back.   
  
"Gotta admit," he panted with a grin as the doctor went about tugging his trousers off, "kinda missed being manhandled."   
  
"Are we at the point where you're missing me, already?" Arcade purred against his ear, nipping at his shoulder and raking his hands down his sides. "Damn, I really  _am_  doing something right. God, you're gonna get so  _clingy_ ..."   
  
Manny opened his mouth to protest but Arcade took advantage of the situation, slipping two of his fingers past Manny's lips. Manny grabbed his wrist and sucked on them, drinking in every hitch in Arcade's breath and the way he ground against his ass as one particularly adept swirl of his tongue. He turned to look as the doctor one-handedly maneuvered his way out of his pants. One sight of Arcade's face and he popped the wet fingers from his mouth to say, "Oh, god, you look fucking amazing right now. I will pay you actual money to leave the glasses on."   
  
Arcade grinned breathlessly, saying, "Keep making the noises you're making and I'll do whatever you want."   
  
"Watch out, I'm creative," Manny teased, the last word punctuated by a gasped  _fucking god yes_  as Arcade pressed his spitslicked fingers into him.   
  
Manny gave up trying to hold anything back, moaning loudly as the doctor's fingers worked him open. "There it is," Arcade said, sounding entirely too satisfied with himself.   
  
"Smug bastard," Manny grinned in between moans, pressing his face into the table.   
  
"Hey, you missed being manhandled, I missed making you scream," Arcade said, bending his long body over to cover Manny's, pressing him into the table and quickening the pace of his nimble fingers. "So c'mon. Louder. I want to hear you beg."   
  
Well, Manny wasn't gonna deny him that. So he begged, begged as Arcade pushed into him, holding him down with a hand on his neck as Manny gripped the edges of the table and pushed back against his cock. Reacted to every touch like he was starved for it. Panted Arcade's name desperately as the doctor sucked bruises into his shoulder.   
  
Arcade pulled out and he actually  _whined_ , silenced when Arcade turned him around and lifted him, dropping him on the table and hiking his legs up with big hands under his knees and pushing back inside of him. Manny was pushed back against the wall and wrapped his arms around Arcade's neck, biting his bottom lip as he tried to stifle a sound that would wake the entire goddamn town.   
  
"Let it out," Arcade ordered in a harsh whisper against his ear. "I wanna hear you. Wanna hear what I'm doing to you."   
  
Manny clawed against his back as his head fell back against the wall and he cried out, a raw ragged sound the reverberated off the walls, Arcade slamming into him harder and pumping at his cock. Their sweatsoaked faces were pressed together and they were breathing each other's air, and Manny kept his arms around Arcade's neck, one hand threaded through his hair holding him close. Arcade bit at his swollen mouth and Manny came in a mess in the doctor's fist. Arcade followed him over the edge, one leg half-hitched onto the table as he drove into Manny with his whole body before collapsing against him, face buried in the curve of his neck.

Manny was slumped bonelessly against the wall, Arcade's palms pressing against it on either side of his head as the doctor shakily pushed himself up, looking at him. " _Holy shit_ ," he panted eloquently.   
  
Manny gave a breathless laugh. " _Right?_ " He gave another quick helpless noise as Arcade carefully pulled out of him. "Oh my god, how much is Jasper paying you? Because I'll double it if you just stay here and do that every night."   
  
"Right," Arcade said wryly, standing up straight and picking up the chair he had knocked to the floor, setting it upright and flopping down into it, facing Manny. "With all that sweet Novac money you're raking in."   
  
"I gotta admit, you may be payed in Dinky figurines," Manny said, and Arcade laughed, a wonderful unforced sound from low in his chest. "Dinky toys and my ass, that would be your payment."   
  
"Hey, compared to what Jasper's paying me, that sounds like more than a fair trade."   
  
"What is Jasper paying you?"   
  
"Fancy Lad snack cakes and getting constantly shot at," Arcade shrugged. "Oh, and a lifetime supply of front row tickets to the Boone And Jasper Make-Out Show. I'm not a fan."   
  
"Yeah," Manny said, still catching his breath. "Fuck those guys."   
  
"I'd rather not."   
  
Manny slid off the table, standing on shaky legs that very nearly crumbled beneath him. Arcade reached for his hand, and it was weird how of all the things they'd done tonight  _that_  was the thing that made Manny's stomach flutter. Arcade tugged at the hand, pulling Manny into his lap.   
  
Okay, so, to add to the list of things Manny had never done before Tall Blonde and Handsome here had walked into Novac, alongside getting slammed up against a door and bent over a table, was sitting in a lap. And it was... unexpectedly pleasant. Arcade felt warm and solid beneath him, one of his hands settled at the small of his back while the other slid up one of his thighs, skirting up his side to settle at his hip. Manny slipped his arms around Arcade's neck and leaned in, brushing noses with Arcade as he moved to rest against him forehead to forehead. He breathed in, and murmured, "Okay, this feels good, I'm just gonna sleep like this."   
  
Arcade chuckled softly. "Oh god, I should have expected this."   
  
"Mm. Your fault for being such a comfortable bed."   
  
Arcade gave an exaggerated sigh. "I'm gonna have to carry you to the non-warmblooded bed, aren't I?"   
  
"You could. Or you could just let me sleep here."   
  
"Sleepy already? Really?" The words were a warm buzz in Manny's ear as Arcade moved to lightly kiss at his neck, sending fresh sparks across his skin.   
  
His eyelids slid closed as he savored the sensation of Arcade's warm lips, the scrape of day-old stubble. "Well," he said, tilting his head to give Arcade more of his throat, heartrate quickening again, "you could make an argument for keeping me up all night again."   
  
"Think you could be persuaded?" Arcade asked against his jaw.   
  
Manny answered with a soft moan as fingers threaded through his hair, and Arcade's lips brushed against his. And Arcade just held him in his lap, kissing him slow, languidly, almost cautiously. It was ridiculous, given that he had just fucked him on a table, and it made Manny's heart pound.   
  
It was a strange feeling, being carried to his bed and realizing with a odd twist in his gut that he was already dreading the sunrise.


End file.
